Jocelyn Robinson

A dance company is more than graceful bodies moving across a stage; it’s also the people behind the scenes making sure the artists can create.

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) has been presenting dance “rooted in the African American experience” for half a century. DCDC has weathered the ups and downs of the performing arts in a small Midwestern city for a long time.

Back in October, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Ohio’s oldest modern dance company, opened its 50th season with a world premiere of a full-length ballet. The Bench, A Journey into Love was all about family. 

It told the story of a pair of lovers and their three children through movement, voice, and an original jazz score. 

WYSO went on the air 60 years ago, and we’re celebrating by listening back to some highlights from our historic audio collection.

The feminist movement found a voice on WYSO in its early days, with poets, writers, filmmakers, political activists, and of course, musicians.

On International Women’s Day in 1980, the Dixie Darlings performed live in the WYSO studios. They were fiddler Barb Kuhns, guitarist Cindy Mapes, and Linda Scutt on banjo, fiddle, and guitar, later joined by bassist Joy Clendenon. The Dixie Darlings had a loyal following, and often performed old time music from a woman’s perspective.

WYSO went on the air 60 years ago, and we’re celebrating by listening back to some highlights from our historic audio collection.

The WYSO archive includes the voices of elders from all over Ohio, like this one:  Earl Gregg from West Jefferson. In the early 1980s, Mr. Gregg was 94 years old and he read for the radio from the notebooks he kept about his long, colorful life. He spoke with Jeff Hooper from Little Miami Theater Works.

You can record a birthday greeting for WYSO.  Here's how:

Plan a message about 90 seconds long.  You can start it like this:

WYSO went on the air 60 years ago, and we’re celebrating by listening back to some highlights from our historic audio collection.

In the 1970s, local programs were flowering at WYSO. Antioch College students, WYSO staff members, and community volunteers collaborated to make programs then, as now. And live, local music was also a defining part of what made WYSO, WYSO. Here’s a recording of the Hot Mud Family – familiar to WYSO listeners and music lovers all over the country back then.

This week on Senior Voices, Amatul Shafeek remembers the vibrant west Dayton community of the 1950s and 60s. She grew up in Sacramento, California, but spent summers with her grandmother in Dayton before moving here as a young adult. Amatul spoke with Dayton Metro Library volunteer interviewer, Carol Jackson.

Transcription:

We’re celebrating WYSO’s 60th birthday this year by listening to highlights from our historic audio collection.

Over the years, WYSO has often reported from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base In 2003, early in the war in Iraq, WYSO producer Ryan Warner did a story about the C-141 Starlifter, a gigantic military transport plane that became a common site in our local skies that year.

The Starlifter has since been retired, and Ryan Warner can now be heard on Colorado Public Radio.

You can record a birthday greeting for WYSO.  Here's how:

This week on Senior Voices, 90-year old Kenneth Sommer recalls the high school football coach who made an impression on him at Chaminade High School back in 1945. Kenneth shared his story with Dayton Metro Library interviewer, Jennifer Hicks. 

Transcript:

We’re celebrating WYSO’s 60th birthday this year by listening to highlights from our historic audio collection.

In 2001, WYSO news director Aileen LeBlanc produced a story about corn mazes for her Friday afternoon program called Sounds Local. She went to the corn maze at Young’s Jersey Dairy outside Yellow Springs, and then, another maze called Tom’s Maze in Germantown.

These days, Aileen LeBlanc is a freelance producer out of Beaufort, South Carolina. And here at WYSO, we’re celebrating 60 years of great local stories in Southwest Ohio. 

Today on Senior Voices, we hear from Linda Harris, a native of Miamisburg, who was born at home in 1942. She recalled her teenage years at Miamisburg High School with Dayton Metro Library volunteer interviewer, Liz Anderson.

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